The soul is perhaps the hardest to define. As I understand it our soul collectively surmises that which makes us who we are, our mind, our personality, our character the very essence of us.
What does a healthy us look like? It sounds like a very grand and nobel question, but what does it actually mean? I think the apostle Paul gives us a great insight as he unpacks the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5 22 – 23.
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
This happens by the grace of God through His Holy Spirit transforming us day by day, little by little, but, are there rhythms and pathways that can create more space in our lives for us to be changed by the transformative power of His Spirit?
I think so
Revisiting the pathways analogy, I think there are four habits that are helpful to cultivating health in this context.
Unique Creation – Choosing to be ourselves, so many of us live with the burden of comparison. Comparison is a killer of joy and peace replacing them with jealousy and worry on one hand or judgement and superiority on the other, none of which are healthy qualities. Choosing to be ourselves is so much more than learning to be happy with our body shape, completions or quirks but, actually learning to celebrate the unique personalities we have been created with. If you would like to find out a little more about how you can embrace how your wired I would really recommend taking a short but insightful little test via this link
http://paismovement.com/life-shapes-personality/
Emotional Intelligence – All of us feel a varied and wide range of emotions as we navigate our daily lives. Our emotions are triggered by hopes, dreams, disappointments, fears and past experiences amongst other things. Understanding where they come from in ourselves, why and what is triggering them is incredibly important for our emotional health. Our emotions colour so much of how we perceive our world around us and the choices we make, meaning emotional health is so valuable for our soul’s wellbeing.
Mental Exercise – Our brain whilst anatomically it is not a muscle is very similar to muscles in the sense of the more we stretch it and use it the sharper and stronger it gets. The way our brains are wired is to create patterns of thought, the more we do something the stronger the pattern becomes and the quicker often we get. When we practice something what we are really doing is reinforcing the patterns. So if you want to think sharply stretch your brains in problem solving and creative ways. For example, if you want to be a better communicator stretch your brain in a way that forces it to practice communication, that is one of the reasons I started a blog.
Read Our Bibles – We are called to pursue Christ and our desire is to become more like him. When we act accordingly to His heart, even if it brings us circumstantial trouble it brings us an inner peace that often transcends circumstances. Godly character creates health in our soul because as we pursue what God cares about and rid ourselves of the junk that isn’t what God is like we find love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control all thing good. The Bible is the best place to help us discover God’s heart so that is the best place to start. (If you would like some help unpacking some of the Bible’s principles I would for sure recommend The Cloud and the Line by Paul Gibbs available via http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007EHCKQ4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Long may we come alive as we embrace sustainable rhythms and habits that energise us for adventures ahead.